Operators of electric power grids have long had possession of considerable quantities of data indicative of amounts of electric power provided and consumed at various points within those power grids, but have not been able to effectively use that data in making predictions of future provision or consumption of electric power. Various characteristics of that data typically thwart efforts to use it in making such predictions such that it remains a common practice for operators of power grids to do little better than to essentially guess based on the years of personal experience built up by various personnel. Such reliance on the first hand experiences of individuals necessarily includes making assumptions, without any analytical basis, that levels of power provision and/or consumption in one part of a power grid during an upcoming period of time will exhibit a behavior similar to what is remembered as having occurred before in another entirely different part of a power grid during an entirely different period of time in the past.
A power grid operator controls the operation of supply assets within the power grid that are used to provide electric power, such as generator facilities, transmission lines, distribution substations, primary and second distribution lines, and distribution transformers. Transmission lines are typically used to convey electric power across relatively lengthy distances from generator facilities to distribution substations which in turn convey electric power through distribution lines to endpoint locations at which electric power is consumed. At many of the supply locations, supply meters monitor the amount of electric power produced at or conveyed through one or more of such supply assets. A power grid operator also employs load meters to monitor the consumption of electric power at each of a great many endpoint locations.
The endpoint locations may include primary endpoint locations, such as relatively large industrial facilities or public venues that are typically served by primary distribution lines conveying three-phase electric power relatively directly from distribution substations. The endpoint locations may also include a vastly larger number of second endpoint locations, such as individual houses and places of business, that are typically served by secondary distribution lines conveying two poles of single-phase electric power tapped from separate lines of the three phases of the primary distribution lines through distribution transformers. At each of such primary and secondary endpoints, load meters monitor the amount of electric power consumed by the endpoint assets thereat (e.g., lighting, industrial machinery, climate control systems, appliances, electronic devices, etc.).
Typical power grids include thousands of supply locations from which supply meters provide data indicative of electric power generated or conveyed therethrough. The vast quantities of data provided by the supply meters is typically used to monitor the operating condition of the supply assets, as well as relative degrees of use of each. As will be familiar to those skilled in the art, the generating facilities of a power grid typically include a combination of generating facilities that are able to be operated to relatively quickly change the amount of electric power produced to adjust for changes in demand for electric power that usually occur at various times throughout each day, and generating facilities that are not able to be so operated. As will also be familiar to those skilled in the art, the generating facilities of a power grid typically include a combination of technologies for generating electricity such that each generating facility may be more or less expensive than the others to operate to produce each megawatt of electric power. Thus, the data from the supply meters at generating facilities is, therefore, typically used to monitor how much electric power is being produced at each generating facility at various times of each day as part of monitoring power generation costs.
Typical power grids include millions of endpoint locations from which load meters provide data indicative of electric power consumed. The even greater quantities of data provided by the load meters are typically used to generate monthly bills for the amount and, in some cases, the demand of electric power consumed at each endpoint location.
The recent advent of communications networks in power grids by which both supply and load meters may be remotely monitored from a central location has enabled ongoing monitoring at frequent intervals. This has eliminated the need for in-person visits by personnel to supply and/or endpoint locations to gather and bring back data from supply and load meters at what has traditionally been monthly intervals. However, this change from such monthly collection of data to the collection through a communications network at far shorter intervals has vastly increased the quantity of data that is collected. Also, the data provided by the supply and load meters typically employs different communications protocols, includes the use of different units of measure, and is measured at differing intervals of time. Further, the data provided by load meters is subject to frequently changing conditions at endpoint locations, including frequent changes in who consumes electric power at each endpoint location, and frequent changes in how many endpoint locations are connected to the power grid.